Friday, May 22, 2015

Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel looks at former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, leader of what Weigel calls the Republican “Save Social Security” caucus. Unfortunately, as Weigel notes, Huckabee isn’t particularly clear about what he would do to save it.

In the middle of Mike Huckabee's presidential announcement, his populism took him to a land many Republican candidates fear to tread.

"There are some who propose that to save the safety nets like Medicare and Social Security, we ought to chop off the payments for the people who have faithfully had their paychecks and pockets picked by the politician, promising them that their money would be waiting for them when they were old and sick," said Huckabee. "My friend, you were forced to pay for Social Security and Medicare. For 50 years, the government grabs the money from our paychecks and says it'll be waiting for us when we turn 65. If Congress wants to take away someone's retirement, let them end their own congressional pensions, not your Social Security."

As with a lot of the speech, the words hung together splendidly but the math was TBD.

About me

I am a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, where my work focuses on Social Security policy. Previously I held several positions within the Social Security Administration, including Deputy Commissioner for Policy and principal Deputy Commissioner. Prior to that I was a Social Security Analyst at the Cato Institute. In 2005 I worked on Social Security reform at the White House National Economic Council, and in 2001 I was on the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. My Bachelor's degree is from the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. I have Master's degrees from Cambridge University and the University of London and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. I can be contacted at andrew.biggs @ aei.org.